- A South African woman is making an impact in Ukraine.
- Thousands of Ukrainians fled the country following Russia’s invasion in February.
- Chantelle Flores used her tourism network to assist in humanitarian work.
To assist thousands of women and children displaced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a South African woman has lent a helping hand.
Chantelle Flores has always had a passion for giving back. She has 25 years of humanitarian experience.
She participated in hundreds of charity events in South Africa, where she helped to establish the Holding on to Humanity organisation.
“I was a volunteer for Rotary International for many years. I have done a lot of work filling humanitarian aid gaps in eSwatini and India,” she told News24.
Flores describes Holding on to Humanity as a mechanism of using images and poetry to help raise funds for efforts she cares about.
“We created a photo journal documentary and have published a book with the National Heritage Council of South Africa, which documents South Africa’s cultural heritage,” she said.
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Flores is a professional photographer, and her work has allowed her to travel to over 70 countries across the world.
Despite being born and raised in Benoni, Gauteng, she is currently based in Switzerland.
Flores has done several outreach charity works in countries such as India and eSwatini.
She has now shifted her attention to the war in Ukraine.
In February, the Russian army invaded Ukraine, and thousands of women and children were left destitute after fleeing their homes.
There has been an influx of Ukrainians seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, including Poland.
For Flores, this was an opportunity to put into action her network of tourism sources, to create places for those in need.
She was able to help build a small base of funding and a collection of supplies.
Flores said she was able to help reach out to hotels and rental car agencies to open their doors for those in need.
Emergency supplies.
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She used her network in the tourism industry to help where she could.
“With this war, I was called by NGOs within hours as people were fleeing, and the first shelling went off. They called on me to use my sources in the tourism industry and push to get temporary units done. I rallied up the tourism industry and called on my partners, so we organised the Panek Polish car-sharing company, and they went and put cars on the border.
“We had to do this all from a tourism perspective. The advantage with the tourism industry is we have the resources that no single NGO could have. Wizard (a Hungarian airline) jumped on board to give free flights. This has been such a global team effort, with all of us working together,” she said.
Flores said, along with other tourism partners, she was able to create a temporary refugee resource guide, which she helped distribute via WhatsApp Ukrainian assistance channels. The guide provides details as to where fleeing citizens can find assistance in Hungary and Poland.
“The guide pointed to the emergency services in each country. For example, in Hungary, those in need knew where they could get emergency numbers, human trafficking numbers, hotels and verified emergency information,” Flores told News24.
Flores said her role had shifted in the past couple of weeks, and she was now focused on finding assistance for the supply of water, nappies and food for people in countries where most of the migrants had moved. These countries include Poland, Hungary and Romania.
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